Does 'Game Of Thrones' Episode 5's Final Scene Mean Arya Is The Knight To Save The Day?

Last week social security data from birth registrations in America showed that there had been 2,545 girls named Arya in 2018. After the Game of Thrones character's valiant actions in season eight, that number will surely fight off the likes of Olivia and Emma to become the most popular name in the country by 2020.

Arya has had the most satisfying character arc of the season: defeating the Night King thanks to years of training and regaining some of her humanity in a sex scene with Gendry.

At the end of episode four she rode off on horseback with Sandor Clegane, determined in her mission to defeat Cersei and finish her kill list. Though true to her character not to follow orders, her leaving would surely end either in her tragic death or, perhaps predictably, in her being the one to kill Cersei.

Following neither path is one of the more interesting twists the show has offered up recently. After a touching farewell with Clegane where she thanked him, it was clear one of their storylines was about to end. But instead of Arya obsessively pursuing Cersei as she might have done in the past, here she was the one to walk away.

HBO

Desperately trying to escape the chaos wrought by Daenerys' dragon, she stopped to help a mother and daughter who she had seen before at the gates of the city and tried to drag them to safety over and over again. As the walls of King's Landing fall around her, Arya slowly takes in the senseless violence and loss that war has caused.

In the final moments of the episode she looks at families charred alive, their last moments embracing each other in fear. She sees a white horse, a not so subtle emblem of hope in the war-ravaged ruins around her, and after calming it she gallops out of the city on its back.

It's a suitably epic ending for one of the most destructive and dark episodes of the series yet. Closing with Arya riding valiantly out of the wreckage in this way seems to be pointing towards her as a saviour, a clever play on the male knight on a white steed who comes to the rescue.

The preview for the series finale doesn't give much away, with no dialogue but instead ominous shots of Dany's army having seized what remains of the city. We don't see the faces of key players like Jon Snow or Sansa Stark. We only see the armies raising their swords, Tyrion looking aghast at what he has helped create and Arya sneaking her way through the crowd.

It's a throwback to the little girl who fought through a crowd to see her father murdered in season one. A girl we know has come a long way since then.

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